God is in search of a good man

Puttaparthi, Sai Kulwanth Hall (Shiva Rathri )

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Everyone says that they are in search of God. You don't need to search for God. In fact, God is in search of a good man. Where is a noble soul? Where is a good man? Who is a man who is endearing, loving? Today's man has one thing inside and expresses something else outside. So who are good and who are bad? One should exhibit unity within and outside. What is the modern fashion? In tragic moments he smiles, and cries in happy moments. These are just modern tendencies. With all these wicked qualities, how do you expect to recognise divinity? You should be one and the same, within and outside. God is searching for such a person. So we should strive to be such human beings. We should be one, inside and outside. Then, God will come searching for you.

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Man

Many youth feel, “Being born as human, what is the use if man does not have freedom? A tiny fish moves freely in water as does the little bird in the sky. Every animal born in the forest enjoys freedom. Then why can’t man? Why can’t man roam freely?” The youth has so many questions like these.
Yes, it is true that the fish has freedom; birds’ flying freely too is true as is the freedom of animals. But what sort of freedom is being enjoyed by them? Fish enjoys the freedom of fish; animals enjoy the animal freedom; birds enjoy the bird freedom; as a human being one must enjoy the freedom entitled to man but not aspire for animal freedom. Is it proper freedom to call oneself as ‘human’ and behave as animals? One must enjoy the freedom given to humans. Do not aspire to enjoy freedom like an animal for animal freedom is very dangerous. If one follows the animal one verily becomes an animal. Therefore, the freedom that one should aspire for is the human independence.
What is ‘human independence’? Man has certain limits. Man must enter the path of truth, follow righteousness, develop love, live with peace and practice non-violence. One must experience freedom by following the above five principles. This is the nature of the five elements of life. The whole world is made of the five elements of life. Everything is a combination of these five elements.
Mountains are made up of rocks. Trees are made up of wood, the earth is made up of mud, the body is made up of flesh- but everything is essentially a combination of the five elements of life. For the convenience and happiness of man the wood is made into table, doors, benches or windows. The door, table, chair, window- names and forms may differ but it is essentially wood.
Then there is the rock that makes the mountains. It can be changed in to any form. What are they? The one that is treaded upon is rock, the one that is bowed to is rock, the one that is built is rock; the one that is used to hit is rock. Therefore the one that is walked upon, that one pays obeisance, the one used in building and the one that is used to mould are all rocks. The rock that is treaded upon is called as ‘Banda’, floor; the rock that one bows is called as idol, the rock used for building is granite and the rock used for moulding is called as Chisel. All of them are various transformations of rock. These are all the changes done as per the requirement and convenience.
Therefore the world is made up of the five elements. There is nothing beyond the five elements. If one insists on the presence of a sixth element then that is called as the ‘Anthahkarana’, the inner sense. All the other elements are present externally. The inner sense is the nature of the spirit. Therefore if man wants to experience his freedom he must not go beyond the five elements. Then alone man would be successful and achieve happiness.

The nature of human beings may be categorised under two types. One is ‘animality’ and the other is ‘Divinity’. Man, by becoming a slave of six vices viz., lust, anger, greed, infatuation, ego and jealousy, is losing his divine gifts viz., intellect, destiny, status, and riches. Because of his bad behavioural practices, he is losing the sense of discrimination and thus living in state that is worse than animality! Instead, one should strive to divert his mind, body, duty and time, towards the sacred path by attempting to do good things. He must enjoy doing his domestic chores and discharge all his assigned responsibilities.
Experiencing Divinity by doing good things, he can dedicate his life to Godliness. Obsessed with the mirage of diversity, man is losing sight of the Unity which is real. Man should giver animality and embrace divinity.

A relative who does not help in times of need,
God who will not grant boons in spite of worship,
Horse that will not ride in the battlefield,
One needs to give up these immediately!!
One must give it up in a minute. If God does not fulfil one’s desire even after worship, one must give Him up. One can forget the God who does not grant. One must give up the horse that does not run. To whom are the instructions intended to? The three lines are said in three ways and people tend to neglect that. People take the first three lines and ignore the last line, ‘gadara Sumati!!’
‘Sumati’ – man with a good mind, the above instructions are for ‘Sumati’. Without the good mind one should not think that the relatives are not helping. How can one expect the relatives to help when one has done all wrong deeds? Even parents would not help.
When one is of good mind, all the relatives would come to help, God too would grant boons and the horse will run in the battle field. But when is this possible? Before alighting a horse one must think if one has the knowledge of horse riding. Blaming the horse for his lack of horse riding skills by a person who hasn’t seen a horse before is foolishness and ignorance. A ‘Sumati’, an intelligent person, will mount a horse only if he knows horse riding else he will not go near it.

Man wastes his life by not following the right path. Why has God gifted man with the body? Hence it is said: “Sareera madhyam khalu dharma saadhakam!!”- The body is conferred to indulge in dharmic deeds. All the creatures –animals, birds, and insects’ etc- indulge in ‘karma’, action and so does the human body. Then why is it said, “Janthunaam nara janma durlabham!”- Of all the creation the human life is the most precious?
Human life is rare and needs to be put to use in a special manner. Therefore the human body must be engaged in service. The man who cannot bend his body in service is a lazy person. Hence ‘realisation is best than the rest’ and ‘laziness is rust and dust!’ But today man is giving in to laziness.
There is plenty of land in Bharat and many perennial rivers but yet there is shortage of food and water. The reason for the shortage is that man is not discharging his duties properly and is wasting his time. “Time is God, don’t waste time! Time waste is life waste!!” Hence, by wasting time one is wasting life.

‘Ya chinta bhuvi, putra mitra bharanau, Vyapara sambhashane,
Ya chinta dhana dhaanya yasasas labhe sada dhyayathe,
Saa chinta yama raja bheemasadana dwaraprathane
Prabho, nandanandana pada dwandaavindekshane!! ‘
That mind with which one indulges in the conversations pertaining to one’s kith and kin, one’s business etc, that mind which one uses to acquire wealth, fame and prosperity, if one concentrates that mind on the lotus feet of the Lord, then one loses the fear of death.
The thoughts of man today are worldly. The mind wants pleasure always but even a moment’s concentration on the divine feet provides peace.
One spends hours, days, months and even years indulging in the worldly matters but even a moment, which is spent in thinking of the Lord, is enough to attain everything. What has one gained by living the worldly life facing hardships and toiling for so many years? One has gained nothing but has only accumulated worthless things. People say that they want to become rich, a millionaire, but who is a ‘millionaire’?
‘Who is the biggest man in this world? He who has much satisfaction is the biggest man!!
Who is the poorest man in this world? He who has much desire is the poorest man in this world!!’

One also says ‘mankind’. How should man be? He should be kind, and then alone can he be referred to as ‘Mankind’. But today one can only see the man but not the kindness then how can one say ‘mankind’? Therefore, a heart filled with kindness is “Mankind”.

“Chillara raallaku mokkutu vunte
Chitthamu chedura orey orey!!”
Bowing to every rock and pebble makes one fickle minded. Man wastes time contemplating on inert objects and neglects the divinity in life forms. An action done with love has far reaching benefits. The cattle trusts man and bearing suffering and pain helps him in ploughing the fields and in getting the harvest. Man treats such cattle with cruelty. He hurts the very animal that helps him and prays to the rock idol of cattle, ‘Nandi’, with great devotion. This is man’s foolishness. God exists everywhere. One must be able to see God in the living forms.
Man must inculcate such divine feelings. “Isa vaasyam midam sarvam” Humanness is the divinity that exists in all. Man today is becoming scholarly in viewing the diversity in unity but the capacity to see and believe the unity, the oneness in diversity is on the decline.

Every being has eyes. It is not only the humans that have eyes but even the animals, birds and insects too have eyes. Then what is the significance of man having eyes? What is the greatness of human life? To satisfy oneself with the mere vision of the physical eyes is very unfortunate. Man needs and must have the wisdom eye. Of what use is one’s education and intellect if it does not confer it? Of what use is the divinity in man? Isn’t the man who does not realise the latent divinity useless?!!
“Janthunaam narajanma durlabham!” amongst all the beings the human life is sacred and noblest. The human life is extolled and described in different ways as being sacred and one of character. Hence man must experience the wisdom in this human life. The physical eyes are inert. One cannot see one’s eyes, then how can the inert physical eyes see the subtle mind. The physical eyes that cannot see the mind how can they see the atma? One is not able to recognise one’s own nature then how can one know about others? Eyes that cannot see themselves, how can they see the mind? Therefore the eyes that cannot see the mind are ill equipped to see the atma.

Where has man come from? What is his origin? No man is putting in efforts to enquire and to know the answers. He merely exists and spends time in drinking, eating etc but does not dwell on the question “where have I come from?” Man, based on the physical body, says that he has come from such and such city or place viz Madras, Bombay, Calcutta, Bangalore etc. Basing on his vocation and profession man calls himself a doctor, a farmer, a lawyer or a student. Man does not find the actual answer when he refers to himself as being from a particular place or country or as pertaining to a particular vocation or as a particular individual.
What is man called? He is called as “manuja”, “Manava”. What is meant by “manuvu”? It is “swayambhu manu” meaning self effulgent. “Ja” means that which is born. “Manuja” is the one who is born out of “swayambhu” the self effulgent. Man is called “manuja” as he is born of the ‘manu’ the self effulgent.
But man today does not realise the truth at all. While being the very form of ‘Sath, Chith, Ananda’, man searches for the same outside. What is the reason for it? Without entering the path of knowledge, man dreams in the sleep of ‘ignorance’. He is deeply engrossed in the worldly sleep and forgets his true nature.
A King or a president or a prime minister is unaware of his position in his dreams. In the dream one identifies oneself with the thing that is dreamt. In the dreaming state one does not remember one’s position or stature at all. It is only upon waking that one talks about one’s position viz a king or a president or a prime minister.
Similarly, man who slumbers in deep ignorance, does not remember that he is the very form of ‘Sath, Chith, Ananda’ and identifies and attaches himself with the body as being from a place, doing a particular vocation or being a particular individual. It is this ignorance that is the cause for delusion.
Just as the rice that is hidden from one’s view when covered with husk, just as the husk which cannot be present without the rice, just as the water that is hidden from one’s sight due to the layers of moss, just as the sun that is hidden from one’s view when covered by the clouds, just as the objects that are not seen when layers cover the eyes (cataract) so also man who is covered with ignorance cannot realise his true self.
The Upanishads say, “Uttishtatha, jagratha, prapya varanyabodhata”, ‘arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached’. The Upanishad says, “My dear son, because you are in the slumber of ignorance, you are not able to realise your true self.” Rice can be had when the husk is separated. Rice does not exist as separate entity; it is not seen as it is covered with husk. Sun is not coming from somewhere and going to somewhere; Sun is not visible due to the rotation of the earth or due to the clouds that cover it. The sun shines brightly when the clouds move away.
The fire covered in ashes is not visible; the moment the ash is removed one can see the fire underneath. All these things have not appeared all of a sudden from somewhere; they already exist. Though they are present they are covered in ignorance hence hidden from view. Those, that cover the things from view, are temporary and ephemeral.

The water exists without the fish but the fish cannot live without water. The branch is a part of the tree; the child is the spark of its mother. Branches cannot exist without the tree. The child too cannot survive without the mother. Similarly humans too are the spark of the divine and cannot aspire to be happy by discarding divinity.
But in this age of Kali, man propagates that human effort is of utmost importance and that there is no use of god, after conducting many experiments. The truth so gained is useful only for showcasing it outwardly but inwardly it fails to give any satisfaction to man.

Human birth originates from bliss, is sustained by bliss and merges into bliss ultimately. The bliss is the goal of human life. Bliss is the cause for man’s birth; it is man’s ‘dharma’ or quality and bliss is the essence of human life.
Man puts various efforts to attain this bliss or ‘ananda’. From childhood to ripe old age, man indulges in various activities to obtain this bliss. Man does not find this bliss in places that he searches. It is mere foolishness on man’s part to search for bliss and happiness elsewhere when he himself is the embodiment of happiness. Is there anyone in this world who is in search of himself outwardly? Searching for bliss elsewhere is just as foolish as searching for oneself outwardly.
The water exists without the fish but the fish cannot live without water. The branch is a part of the tree; the child is the spark of its mother. Branches cannot exist without the tree. The child too cannot survive without the mother. Similarly humans too are the spark of the divine and cannot aspire to be happy by discarding divinity.

Human life is special in this world, which is not realised by all. What is the significance and speciality of human life? Humanness is not merely a worldly or physical aspect. “Sareera madhyam khalu dharma saadhanam!” Human life is an embodiment of righteousness and the human body is a means to follow righteousness.

Who is a human being? Is it the one with a physical form having legs and hands?
Do not mistake the fruits of silk cotton tree as mango fruits,
Do not mistake small white stones to a sugar candy,
Do not mistake the useless straw to sugarcane and chew it,
Do not be deceived by the external appearances,
Character alone is the true nature of human!! When one tries to see the character, the real human nature is not seen in people. Therefore, people should realize how sacred, how pure and ideal the human life is. In this context that it is said, “Jantoonam nara janma durlabham”, meaning, of all the types of living beings it is very difficult and rare to be born as a human being.

When one is the embodiment of the divine, there is none outside that one can seek as God. Therefore one must expand one’s perception. World is wide and vast. Isn’t it wrong to have narrow-mindedness living in the wide vast world?!! Living in the big, wide world one must develop broad mindedness. The moment one acquires the broadness in one’s thoughts that is the moment one realises the divinity in oneself. The spiritual exercises that one undertakes limit God.
One reduces the all pervasiveness of God by limiting Him to a photograph and believing that He exists there and there alone. God is beyond all the worship and donations. People are stuck in ignorance when they try to offer God a thousand rupees if he makes one win a lottery of ten lakhs. Taking ten lakhs from Him and offering only a thousand rupees is so mean and foolish!! If God is so poor to accept one thousand rupees from a devotee, how can He give ten lakhs? All these are crooked desires.
Some bargain with God saying that if one gets a job, one would offer one’s hair. Offering shavings to God for anything is an act of ignorance. There is nothing that one can ‘give’ to God. There is no God separate from one, who would expect anything in return. One is, essentially, everything that is around, but is engulfed by the sheath of ignorance and illusion to realise it. As long as one is engulfed by ignorance one cannot realise divinity. Hence one must make efforts to gradually overcome the illusion and ignorance to realise the innate divinity.

One must distance oneself from this duality and develop the feeling of unity with God and spend one’s life in divinity. A person came to Swami and said, “Swami, the scriptures say that the Brahman is truth and world is delusion. “ And Swami replied, “Do not bother if the world is illusionary or not. Leave the world to itself. Whether you are truth or not, think about yourself.”
Without realising the truth about oneself, wallowing in discussions about the truth of the world is a mere waste of life. One must never enter into such futile discussions as only lazy people indulge in such discussions.
There is yet another type of people who are keen on worshipping. Who are they worshipping and who is worshipping? It is Swami’s opinion that one can undertake worship and prayer as personal spiritual exercises. But if one really wants to understand God in the true sense and in the true form, one has to understand that the concept of worshipping God does not exist.
God is not the receiver nor is man the giver. If one is keen on worshipping, one can worship self. Where can one find the God that is not present in oneself? When one tries to find out the whereabouts of God, then God is as far from one as one is far from oneself. God will be nearer to one if one is nearer to oneself and far from one if one is far from oneself.
Therefore, one must come close to oneself, and then alone can one understand divinity.

Many people are subjected to many difficulties, troubles and sorrows and think that in spite of worshipping the Lord they are subjected to such sorrows and troubles. Many lament that God is not freeing them of their sorrows. This thinking is very far from truth. Sorrow does not have limbs or eyes or the ears. The thing that is most disliked and most uninvited by man is sorrow!!
Why should one worry about sorrows? Sorrows are merely delusions but not permanent things. Hence God is not different and separate from man. The scriptures extol God as an entity that is separate from man and man as trying to attain God. That is not the right interpretation. As long as one thinks that one is separate from God, one will be filled with selfishness. One must distance oneself from this duality and develop the feeling of unity with God.

Man has two types of natures imminent in him- one is animal nature and the second one humanness. This humanness, prone to the six weaknesses namely desire, anger, lust, greed etc, does not make proper use of the money and wealth gifted by God nor does it realise the nature of the mind. Further by misusing and wasting the position, destiny, capacities and possessions given by the Lord, man is losing the human nature.
Subject to vices and bad habits, man ruins himself and comes down to the level of the animal. This is the result of the animal behaviour in man. Man should not be so.
On the other hand when man makes proper use of the mind, position, destiny, possessions and capacities and develops good character and virtues, treads along the righteous path, he not only becomes human but also has the capacity to become divine.

The bygone days will never come again. River Yamuna cannot come back when once it merges in the vast ocean. A fruit that is well chewed, eaten and swallowed cannot be brought back in its form.
But man is just spending his days engrossed in desires and wants unmindful of what future has in store for him. Just as the rays of the Sun reduces the water by transforming the water into vapour, likewise man is also not able to realise the diminishing of his life span day- by- day.
Life is like a big clock. This clock has the years, months and days as the hands of the clock. One is happy that the hands of the clock are moving properly unaware that soon it will ring the final bell!! One is not mindful of the hours passing by. ‘Days’ are the minute hand of this clock. ‘Months’ are the hour hand of the clock and ‘years’ are the seconds’ hand.
One only sees the passing of the hours and days but does not recognise the diminishing life span. One should conduct oneself in full realisation of the responsibility and duty before this time passes away. What is the reason behind the birth of the mankind? What is the truth of the human society? One must recognise this truth and responsibility and spend one’s life accordingly. One is not recognising the sanctity and the divinity inherent in one’s life.

Embodiments of Love!!
For long man has been treading on the wrong path embedded with doubts and confusion and leading a chaotic life. What is right and what is wrong? The reason behind such doubts and confusion is that one considers oneself as an individual. But man is not an individual entity but a collective form, a social being, ‘Samishthi’. Man is further the ‘Srushti’ the creation, ‘Pushti’ the energy or the strength and ultimately the ‘Parameshti’ the Divine energy!
Hence, man is the divinity, the energy, the creation and the collective form. Man must obtain the ‘Pushti’ the strength of ‘Shakthi’, the energy and then proceed to make ‘Srushti’ the creation. The power of creation is the divinity.

Heart is the most important organ in the human body. Life becomes useless if the heart goes on a strike. What does the heart do? The heart gathers the blood, present all over the body, at one place and pumps it to the lungs to purify and supplies the pure blood to the whole body. In addition to this the heart has some special capacities.
The blood that is pumped each time by the heart into the lungs travels a distance of twelve thousand miles! What is it that drives the blood to a distance of twelve thousand miles? Is it the scientist? No! Is it the engineer? No! Is it a Yogi, the spiritual seeker? No! Is it a machine or a device? No, it is the divine energy that is responsible for the circulation of pure blood all over the body. Man cannot accomplish even a small task without the divine will.

What is the basis for the light of the intellect? It is the self
confidence. One must develop this self confidence for, without self confidence
one cannot achieve anything. One cannot even trust oneself without self
confidence. Without self confidence one’s life becomes chaotic. Therefore man
must believe in the divinity in being human.

People speak about the trinity viz. Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara but nobody has seen them nor seen those who resemble them in the forms specified. Then what is the form of the trinity? The trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara, are the three qualities or attributes of ‘satwa’, ‘rajas’ and ‘tamas’ present in mankind.

If man is satisfied living with his physical sheath alone then what is the specialty of human life? What is the significance of his achievements in and knowledge of the physical matter? The animals and the birds do not go to any universities nor do they earn any degree; if human being too in spite of his education leads a life of animals and beats then what is the use of human life? Does it lie in amassing wealth?
Honey bees too amass sweet nectar from flowers bit by bit and build a honey coomb. Is earning wealth the speciality of human life? Honey bees too are amassing wealth. What is wealth? God is the embodiment of all types of wealth and prosperity. Knowledge, health, virtues, good conduct, good actions, good words, good vision, good thoughts are all considered as wealth.
Man is one who has the wealth of the above things put together. Man whose life is enriched by having such types of wealth gives up those and aspires to amass money.
Where from does one get all these wealth from? All this wealth is got from earth; even the physical human body has emerged from earth. Human body is the result of food obtained from earth. For such human life the physical and worldly wealth is no wealth at all. The real wealth is the divine wealth. Man’s life is meant to sanctify itself by contemplating on the divinity and also to enjoy the worldly pleasures and luxuries.

“Durlabham, maanusho janmaha!!” Human birth is rare to get. “Madaatma sarvabhootantaraatma!!” Because the divine pervades all forms alike, human form is very difficult to get. Every being has the five faculties or Koshas namely-‘Annamaya’ (food), ‘Pranamaya’ (life), ‘Manomaya’ (senses), ‘Vignyanamaya’ (knowledge), and ‘Anandamaya’ (bliss); but it is only in the humans that the fourth faculty namely the ‘Vignyanamaya’ or knowledge has evolved and is eminent. And this truth is known only to the humans.
Although birds and animals too have these five faculties, the sacred faculty of knowledge is not evolved in them. Man can not only gain knowledge but also the wisdom of the self and become the realised, ‘brahma gnyaani’.
Man’s gross form consists of the faculties of ‘annamaya’, the food, ‘Pranamaya’ the life and ‘manomaya’ the senses. The ‘Vignyanamaya’ Kosha or the sheath of knowledge is the subtle body of man. The sheath of bliss or the ‘Anandamaya Kosha’ is the causal form of man. There is a ‘Mahakaarana’ stage which transcends even bliss or the ‘Anandamaya Kosha’.
The uniqueness of man lies in recognising the transcendental divine principle which goes beyond bliss. Being born as human being, it is not enough to live the life as animals or birds given to satisfying the basic needs and living with fear, anxiety, desires etc. What is the difference between man and the animals if he is confined to food, sleep, fear etc? Man has to go beyond the basic four faculties and aspire to attain bliss. Man’s life which commences with food should end with salvation and bliss.

Every man will have these two, birth and death. Between birth and death there lies whole life and as you think of it you can live long or less. The true human spirit neither takes birth nor dies. It is only the body that grows and decreases but the inner self has neither increased nor decreased. In young age we call him a child, in youth we call him a man, in old age we call him grandfather. in fact the child, the man and the grand father are all one. In fact the relationship has not changed in any way. Gods form may be different but God's reality is one and the same. Truth is only one referred to as many. We have to know this truth today. We should repect everybody. We should love all. When once you experience this stage of truth you become divine. When once you understand the reality of the self present in everybody you never suffer. But we consider it is difficult to know this. It is not difficult. There is no other thing that is much simpler than this. In fact the defect lies in your Dhrishti the vision, not in Srishti the creation. You don't correct your vision but you find out the mistake in the creation. There is no mistake in creation. In creation, there is only unity or oneness. The mistake lies in your sight or vision. With self confidence undertake any task you are sure to be successful.

Man is the embodiment of God. Man has got latent sacred qualities. In fact all the values he has inherent are not put into practice. There is divinity in every man. Without recognising the divinity, man has drowned himself in matters relating to body, mind and is wasting his valuable life. what sort of the creature the man is? He attaches value to the diamond, he values Gold, he values land, but we consider values. We consider diamond highly valuable, Gold is highly valuable. It is a big mistake. Who is the one that attached value? Men are more valuable than all the wealth of the world. Man is most precious and highly valuable. Man has got important qualities like the character and virtue and the love is his life. When there is no love he is no man. Love is God, Live in Love. We have to develop that love. It should be expansion of Love.

Man is capable of recalling, recapitulation. Thinking faculties are natural trait. Search is wonderful in him. It is constant search of man, that is responsible for waves of creativity in the field of art and sculpture that have been originated over the passage of time. Man is not able to investigate his intellect in the way it has been investigating, So truth is not understood in the true sense. One sees the tree. He sees only the branches that are apparent, and not the hidden roots. One might see the roots but they cant see the branches that way. It is not the natural tendency for one who is in search of truth. The fructification of search for truth amounts to visualisation of branches, roots and entire tree as a whole. Scientist watches only the branches. The philosopher, spiritualist who watches the roots. True search for truth no matter a philosopher or a scientist should be able to see the roots, the branches , the leaves and everything that belongs to a tree.

When our fellow men are in difficulty, we should
go to their help to the best of our ability. You should feel
that there is no difference between man and man. You
should establish the oneness of humanity and realise the
relationship that exists between one human being and
another. You should realise that it is the spirit of Atma
that runs through the entire range of human beings.
This alone will enable you to reach the ideal of
“Brotherhood of man and Fatherhood of God.” Today
we are using words like brothers and so on in a
meaningless way and as mere words. We are not giving
any value to either the bodily relationship or the mental
relationship that signifies brotherhood. It is only when
we can rise above these temporary relationships, of the
body and of the mind, and get into the aspect of Divinity
that we can understand the true meaning of brotherhood.
It is only then that we can realise that it is the same
Divine principle that exists in all of us. We should make
an effort to realise such truth. It is for recognising such
truth, that this kind of good company is essential

Dear students, teachers and patrons of education! With a desire to improve education in this sacred land, we are devising many methods
and many ways; but in so doing, we are unable to
understand what is of paramount value in all that we are doing. The man who holds the plough for cultivating
the land, the worker who works in a workshop, the
tradesman who carries his trade and the writer who writes
his poetry—indeed, every individual who is engaged in
doing any task—are all students in the university of this
wide world. However, the writer writes something and changes it. The artisan chisels something and alters it and so on. All these creations and alterations are the results of their own efforts. In the created world, there is nothing which has
no specific use. In this context it is extraordinary that man should make his own life useless.

Why be afraid to chant the glory of the Lord? In doing so the human life becomes weak. One should never become a weakling. A weakling cannot achieve even a simple task. One is ever ready to commit wicked deeds. Why should one step back when it comes to leading a sacred life or doing good deeds or being in good company? This is a very big weakness in the modern man!

For good work and good people, it is natural that there are many types of obstructions and obstacles. With courage, strength, and happiness, we must make an attempt to meet these obstacles, bear and overcome them. A tree which has plenty of fruits cannot escape the blows of the stones. Nobody will throw a stone at a tree which has no fruits. When good people meet with obstacles, it becomes amply clear and evident that the tree-like good person has very tasty and good fruits which are sought after. It is only pure gold that is put in fire and faces hammer strokes. It is only a pure diamond which gets cut with so many facets. If it is not precious diamond, it will not be cut into so many different ways and its value will also be less. In the same manner, good people, noble men and people who are born with a higher purpose in this world face a number of obstacles but they should meet those obstacles and overcome them with courage and achieve their goal without leaving the sacred path of truth and forbearance. Therefore, irrespective of what others say and irrespective of how others ridicule, howso many obstacles you may encounter, without leaving the sacred path, one should engage in good actions, without losing courage, with forbearance, one should achieve success.

Students do not understand what humanness is. He declares himself as being "Manava" without knowing its meaning. The proper study of mankind is man. The humanness lies in the unity or the harmony of the thought, word and deed. In these days, this harmony is lost and we find disharmony. Because of this disharmony, man is a victim of many different types of sufferings.

Today's man, whatever he is listening or seeing, he does it out of selfishness and self interest. He loves the world because of his own selfish interests , he doesn't love the world for the sake of the world. He loves a particular person not for the person's sake, but for his own sake. If you enquire this way, you will find selfishness, selfishness and only selfishness. It is necessary to be selfish, but it should be within limits.

Human life is the essence of the six elements viz., the five elements and the self. To realise that one has to acquire knowledge through these three paths.
One path is to realise the nature and divinity in oneself. The second path is to realise the nature and oneself in the divine. The third path is to see oneself and God in nature. When one acquires knowledge through these three paths one can have the true knowledge of the self. This path is called ‘Integrated awareness’ or ‘pragnya’.
Every human being must make an effort to know these three paths as it is the one that is to be practised at all times and at all places. It’s universal complication. Man is not making an effort to know this nature. When this realised it is called as ‘universal application’. This is permanent at all times and at all places. Man is trying to solve the problems that are temporary and false.

It is very difficult to get a human birth. Among all the living beings it is difficult to get a human birth. What is the inner meaning of saying that it is difficult to get human birth? If we live our life like animals and birds, living in the same way as animals and birds live, we are wasting our life. Human alone has the power of discrimination to distinguish what is good and to distinguish it from bad. He has the divine power to recognise the time sense - the past, the present and the future. That is why it is said it is difficult to get human birth.

God doesn't exist separate from us. The form of man itself is the form of God. God essentially is in the form of man. God doesn't have a separate form of His own. It would be going on the wrong path if we do not recognise divinity which has taken a human form and waste our life asking unnecessary and useless things and waste our chance. Avatars descend on Earth in order to teach the sacred lessons to humanity.

What is the meaning of 'Manava'? It has three letters. 'Ma' means 'without any kind of ignorance, illusion, or misconduct'; 'na' means without and 'va' means vartana or behaviour. One has to work accordingly or lead accordingly without negative traits. One should foster sacred thoughts and feelings.

Many people compose poems. There are lakhs and lakhs of compositions. Of all these compositions, love is the life principle. This sort of human mind is not possible for everybody. Man is not ordinary. Man is full of courage, valor and strength and is mighty.

Man has infinite power within him. In this world there is no other power which is not present in man. Whatever that you see, hear and experience is within you. Everything is the reflection of the inner being. Therefore you generate all the powers within you and experience them. We have to make every attempt to understand the nature of this. How can we know this? Since ancient times, the culture of Bharath has experienced this principle in varied ways. Today is Maha Shivaratri. We experience night daily. That’s just ordinary night, full of darkness. This is Shivaratri, which is auspicious night. How do we call it auspicious? The mental faculties are sixteen. Human life has these aspects for the faculties. On this day of Makara Chaturdasi, it is possible to understand divinity easily. Therefore we consider this day auspicious. The auspiciousness lies in directing our mind towards God. There are so many residual bestial qualities in man. We should not hurt anyone.

Certain qualities are increasing in our life. That is just a sign of weakness, nothing else. Some people foster bad qualities inside, but publicize their virtues. That is not the human quality. Human life is rarest of all. This human life and the body with all the senses is given so as not to be born again. We should make use of this body in right way, in the Dharmic path. What is this Dharma or righteousness? Dharma - righteousness is the one that has the unity of the three, thought, word and deed. Only then would we be true to the name of Manava or human. In other words, the proper study of mankind is man. The harmony of thought, word, and deed. Today this unity is rare. We are not able to recognize the sanctity in human life. In fact, man is God. The human being is Divine. As long as the individual (body) feeling persists, you are a human being. if you have divine feelings, you are God. The difference lies in your feelings. The mistake lies in our feelings. Therefore good and bad are not present in the man in front of you. Everything is within you. One’s own feelings transform, they appear as good and bad. Therefore every human being must consider one’s own being as divine or as God so as to be happy. Human life is gifted so as to understand the divinity in Nature. This human life is given to experience all the qualities present all around in this universe.

Thus, man is born, journeys through his youth,
grows old, declines and dies. Should people think only
of these transformations and nothing else? Should they
not think of something more sacred like the Atma
Thathwa? During his youth and boyhood, man mixes
with several people and spends his time playing with
them. As he advances in age, he involves himself in
satisfying his desires, runs after women and seeks love
and affection. When he grows older, he wants to earn
money and amass wealth so that he can use it for his
pleasure. When he becomes quite aged, he does not think
of the Divine but spends his time in many different ways
and finds himself unable to give up the attachments which
he has developed in his life. In this manner, man simply
wastes his life, turns it into mud and becomes utterly
useless in the end.

Sumathi stopped the sunrise. Savithri just wiped out the destiny. Where does the strength for women come from? When man tries to practice all the virtues, Sathyam, Shivam, Sundaram get manifested. This powerful strength is within man; invisible. Kamsa tried to kill his own sister, Devaki. At that time, her husband tried to protect her. Where did Vasudeva get this power and strength? This great strength is immanent in man. This strength is not something which you have got to get from outside. When one forgets humanness and remembers divinity, this divine strength manifests within oneself. Man doesn't recognize his strength and so he goes about his spiritual practices. They try to worship Rama, Krishna, Jesus etc. But the very foundation of all these things is the strength within. That is the very form of Shiva Shakthi. The Shiva Shakthi power is all over and all pervasive.

The mother of today thinks that her children should become very great people. Some mothers say that they want their children to be good. It is not a correct thing to wish for a great son. The child should become great - in what way? Is it bodily or wealth wise or status wise? He should earn a good name by virtues. The great man was Ravana. The good person was Rama. Rama put into practice all that he studied. Rama practiced everything. Ravana had studied a great deal but he did not practice them. He was full of ignorance. He got a great name but he did not get a good name. Rama did what he felt was virtuous and that's why he got a good name.

Obtaining this divine as human birth - you have got the birth of a man which is very precious, beyond the animal. Man's life is very very precious. It is very beautiful. It is full of virtues. Not everybody gets the birth of a man. Not every man can express divinity within himself. Doing some spiritual practices, they want to manifest divinity within themselves. That is idol worship. We worship Jesus, Rama, Krishna, whosoever, as God, and we want to proceed on this path. This type of worship is only impermanent. This is all transitory, these are not true, these are useless, these are all without attributes. What is the use of praying to these again and again? Every man should go into society. You have got to worship the indweller within. That is Shivatvam. That is the eternal principle. Therefore, we have to slowly give up these outward illusions concerning the material world. We have to bear in mind matters which deal with the atma, those which relate to divinity, those which lead us to the goal. We are forgetting this truth today.

All of humanity belongs to one clan. In fact, there is only one race - the human race. It doesn’t matter whether one is a theist or atheist or whether you are a Jew or a Buddhist. You belong to the human race - that is the truth. It is enough if you remember this. Keep aside questions like whether you are a theist or an atheist. 'I am human being'. Human values have to be fostered. Having been born as a human, if you not have human values then you are human only in form but not in reality. We find certain traits such as anger, pomp and show and jealousy entering into humans. Anger and jealousy are animal qualities. Anger is the quality of a dog. Wavering nature is that of a monkey. You are not monkey, you are not dog, you are man. When you are carried away by feelings of anger think ten times - 'I am man, I am not dog. I am man, I am not dog'. Today, we find human qualities are on the decline. Animal qualities are finding a place in man. This is not true human life. You must develop such sacred qualities as compassion, truth, forbearance, empathy, etc.

Embodiments of Divine Atma! Man in this world is making several inventions and attempts, he is also manufacturing many machines and he is ambitious to attain great knowledge, but in spite of all these, he is not getting the peace that he should have and he should obtain. Man from day to day involving himself in worldly life is being blown as if he is blown in a river and he is becoming more and more distant from peace and from tranquility. After receiving a gift of this divine birth as a human being and not to follow the path of truth and living an artificial life is and wasting one's own life is not a right path for you to adopt.